Lilium
by aer-seph4eva
Summary: NEW GENESIS/AERIS! If anyone could cleanse the rot from his soul…it was her. That fragile little flower… who by the Goddess... was too afraid to bloom. .
1. Chapter 1

**Lilium **

_A short AU drabble concerning of a non-canon connection between Genesis Rhapsodos and a certain doe eyed flowergirl x_

**_C1: Send me an Angel…_**

_**0o0**_

" _**Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul.**_

_**Pride is Lost.**_

_**Wings….stripped away…**_

_**The end is nigh…"**_

_**0o0**_

_It was beneath the bloody corruption of Shinra's rule that Genesis found this place. _

_Hidden beneath the plate..._

_A waning light left to rot…_

_During such times of deep depressive darkness._

_The moment the broken warrior cracked open the doors to the abandoned sanctuary, Genesis felt his aged and weakened form begin to give way. His soul, corrupted by vengeance and withered by the poisons of his quickening, had brought himself inside this lonely church. A place of rest…where his suffering would inevitably end._

_The degrading warrior winced with both pain and exertion, as his brittle and broken bones stumbled past the many empty pews and delicately painted glass windows. Each staggered step he made, brought him to where the wood beneath his feet parted to reveal the blackness of the earth. It was a small bed of dirt and a fragile green, which bore pale yellow buds, too afraid to awaken._

_At the sight and scent of the strange, fragile colours, the warrior's strength soon gave way, and he fell helplessly to his knees. His weathered leather clothing, once a vibrant crimson, now a sallow and pitiful brownish-grey, fell down in torn pieces around his weak and wounded form._

_Suddenly, the broken male coughed and hacked till blood tinged his heavy, shaking palms. Sweat drenched down his brow, seeping into his now flaxen-white hair, as his broken body fought a losing battle with his pained and tortured soul._

"_Goddess…please," the lone male rasped in out true agony, as he dropped his hands into the thick soil beneath him. His gloved hands helplessly clutched at the dirty clogs of earth, which haplessly crumbled within his trembling grip._

"_Please…" he begged once more, as his tired mako eyes began to ache with fettered shame. "Goddess…This body of mine is broken. Robbed by a poison I can no longer endure …"_

_The once proud Crimson Commander felt his heart stutter a terrible rhythm in his chest. He coughed heavily once more, his frail form continuing to bleed out beneath his dirty clothes. _

"_Goddess…Please…" The knelt warrior rasped to the stillness around him. His gaze blurring with desperate emotion, causing the colours beneath him to coagulate into hues tainted with dust and grief. "I know there is no doctor alive who can heal my body. And my time has ran out to exact terrible vengeance for what has been done to me." Dots of black began to filter through the broken warrior's vision, while the tortured wing on his back sporadically quivered and shook. "Bereft of fulfilling my darkness, and bereft of appeasing my shame. Goddess, in my last few moments of life…at least offer me salvation from the pain of my degradation…" Genesis literally begged, even as his wounded form began to dip downwards towards the soil. His broken wing curling around him, cocooning one side of his form in shadow…_

'_**Please…please, embrace this Loveless soul…'**_

"_Goddess…" Genesis all but prayed, as his body began to lose all semblance of strength. His tainted blood dripped through the floorboards and into the dark earth beneath him. "With your gift…the gift of the Goddess…Free me from this broken body…and with your heavenly grace… I shall forever bestow thee, this, my silent sacrifice…'_

_As the wounded male began to fall down to greet the soft earth, a growing light appeared at the entrance of the church. Soon, the sound of slow footsteps began to echo on the floorboards, footsteps which rapidly hastened when the owner caught sight of a growing pool of blood laying peacefully still amongst the flowers._

"_!"_

_The owner's face, which masked the naïve innocence of mankind, stared in horrific fixation at the blood and black feathers, connected to an angel, which lay face down amongst her bed of flowers._

_An angel, which Aeris Gainsborough would soon learn to call Genesis Rhapsodos._

_0O0_

**_There you have it. A little sample of what will be to come…for those who are interested. Review me your thoughts on what you think of G/A. I would be very curious to see what people think._**

**_Have a very lovely lovely day x_**

**_Aer_seph4eva x_**


	2. Is he…an Angel?

**3,643 Words**

**Author: Aer_seph4eva**

**Lilium**

_**CH2: 'Is he…an Angel?'**_

_If anyone could cleanse the rot from his soul…it was her. That fragile little flower… who by the Goddess... was too afraid to bloom._

_**AN.**_

_A series of drabbled thoughts of bitterness and healing. From the literal and lateral perspectives of Genesis and Aeris._

_Expect a little bit of melodramatic prose, every now and then._

_Anywho, enough of my ramblings.. _

_And on with the fic :)_

**_0o0_**

'_An Angel?!'_

Aeris' reaction was instant, as it was instinctive.

Rushing out towards the unmoving form of pale hair and tarnished leather, the brunette cared not for the dirt grazing her pink dress, as she unceremoniously dropped herself down to her knees. Pale fingers reached out beyond the pale yellow flowers, to shyly touch the terribly wide expanse of black feathers, framing one side of the angel's one winged form.

"Err-U-um…Hello?" Aeris spoke shyly to the still, feathered form. Her large dewy-green eyes focusing on the silvery head of hair lying peacefully amongst her lilies. "Um…Mister Angel? Are you ok?"

_0o0_

_The angel did not answer._

_And for one fear provoking moment,_

_Aeris feared the angel never would._

_0o0_

'_Is he…?'_ The brunette's lower lip quivered with a deep and unnerving dread. '_D-dead_?' The very notion seemed so frightening for a girl who embraced solely in the acts of nurturing and cherishing life. For was it not a week ago that Aeris revived the broken body of a little black bird, whom she found lying beneath her Mother's windowsill? Whether by a neighbouring predator, or a malign act of nature, the poor little creäture had met a fate that left it bereft an entire wing. It was not for the first time that Aeris questioned why cruelty and suffering existed on the Planet. For where was Gaia, when the poor bird so desperately needed her protection?

Aeris remembered the many tears she had shed, when she reached down to pick up the broken bird, cradling it fiercely against her own breast. "Oh Planet…," Aeris had wept, as her thoughts slipped into the spiritual tongues of her ancestors.

0o0

_"...Cur poenam cardi parvo damus..._

_Parvus, parvus pulsus..._

_Cor mortem ducens..._

_Vita mollis in stellam_

_redeunt_

_Animam_

_sacrificare_

_necesse est..." (1)_

_'0o0_

In her Mother's garden of colour and life, Aeris' heartfelt thoughts of tears and sacrifice went far beyond the whispers of the flower petals and the faint rustle of their leaves. Her prayer unknowingly possessed the power to transcend beyond the human registered pathways of sound, and thus harken out towards the untapped energies of Gaia's intrinsic green. It was a blessed gift her blood Mother had passed down to Aeris. A gift as wonderful, as it was frightening. For the blood contained within her cells heralded her as a Geo-mancer, and although young, untrained and so very naïve, Aeris nevertheless commanded a power so strong, that with enough training...

She could bring back the dead...

0o0

"!"

0o0

What happened next in Aeris' memory was so overwhelmingly vague…and yet so infinitely beautiful…. The brunette remembered closing her eyes and praying to Gaia…her mind amassing a humming sensation of ephemeral green…

And then in the next moment, Aeris flew her eyes open and gasped!

She watched in paralysed awe as the once dead bird, wiggled its little feathery tail against her fingers, and affectionately nuzzled its little head against her open palm. Large eyes widened even further, when the now rather sprightly bird, flexed both of its wings quite proudly, before hopping from the brunette's palm and landing down upon one of her chunky bronze bangles. The little thing took in the visual sights of the little church, with cute and eager eyes, before flitting off its tiny human perch, and out of the nearest broken window.

_**~flash~**_

Aeris blinked rapidly, as her thoughts returned to the present time, and away from her most recent treasured memory. Knelt beside her current reality of black and bloody feathers, Aeris suddenly reached an unusual epiphany. Tilting her head curiously to the side, the brunette came to a strong conclusion of thought. If she could try to forget how the long, black feathers were attached to a very strange, masculine form, Aeris could almost pretend that the creäture lying before her was but a wounded bird. A rather _**big **_and wounded bird that was in desperate need of a healing.

_Healing_…

Now this was something Aeris could do…for to Aeris, healing was as natural to her as breathing.

Shyly skimming her hand over the long ebony feathers, Aeris trailed her hand upwards, till her stray fingers reached snow-white tendrils of hair. Her touch grew in confidence as her fingers slid down the long strand framing the doll-cracked, yet undeniably angelic face. How old was this angelic being? He looked thirty? Fourty? Fifty? Older?

His age was clearly indeterminable.

Perhaps he was so much older than the girl assumed?

After all, weren't angels ancient deities?

Born with a role to indiscriminately love and protect those who sought out their guidance.

_After all, isn't an angel's beauty meant to be as timeless as the stars?_

The brunette's gaze softened with genuine empathy.

"Oh you poor, poor thing," Aeris exhaled softly, mustering guidance from the Planet to aid her with this rather, unique healing. As a familiar ephemeral green gave rise out from the black earth beneath her feet, Aeris unconsciously moved her fingers, guided by Gaia's healing light towards the angel's doll-cracked skin.

'_Concentrate Aeris. Concentrate.'_

The moment her glowing fingertips glanced the angel's unmoving brow….

"!"

Aeris felt her entire world shift in an instant!

One moment Aeris was kneeling beside the angelic male, and then in the next, her body was thrown down below. The young female cried out in wild shock, as her entire form fell backwards into her flowerbed. But Aeris had no time to think about the harm she had just caused to her poor yellow lilies. For an uncaged animal had unleashed itself upon her. With ashen skin and painfully raw mako eyes, Aeris stared transfixed into a deep inhuman blue, all too mindful of the thick, gloved hand pressing down against her throat.

0o0

_'Oh Gods.._

_What have I done?_

_This..this is no angel...'_

_0o0_

With a lifetime of instincts willing her to flight over fight, and to heal as opposed to hurt, the violent challenge in the winged creature's fiery glare was almost too much for the girl to bear. "_P-please.._d-don't hurt me. I m-mean you n-no harm," Aeris rasped out, trying desperately to pry off her attacker's hand from her throat. However, the poor girl was at a severe disadvantage. Aeris knew her physical strength could not compete against a man, let alone this...this...intimidating one winged creäture. "I- m-mean you no harm.'

"Harm...?" A hypnotically soft voice echoed from the mouth of a being, who bore inhumanly sharp fangs. "You mean me...no harm?"

Aeris felt her back go brittle with instinctual shock. The brunette truly wasn't sure what kind of voice she was expecting but. '_That voice..._' It resonated with deep, impalpable emotions of the dark. _'Oh Gods...what is he?'_

"_You mean me no harm_?!" The false-angel repeated with a dark and rancorous emotion, as his gaze flared an overwhelming phosphorous blue. 'Lies! Lies!' The hand gripping her throat, tightened. His entire body was literaly vibrating with hate.

"No-No! S-stop! P-please," Aeris choked out. Very visible tears glittering in her vision. "I…I did not me-mean to s-startle you Mister An-. I thought you m-might be dead and-"

"-yet you were unfortunately mistaken. Such a pity." The demon interrupted with such a delusional depth of bitterness towards his own person. "And it is such a pity," he murmured softly, his gaze growing distant, sorrowful, even as the girl beneath him struggled for air. "For it seems no matter how much I degrade... Nor how much I wither, the Goddess denies me her gift I need...to become free from this unnatural torture."

"P-please..l-let..m-e..g-o..."

Venomous blue snapped down to the victim beneath his slightly shaking body, and Genesis stared. The once handsome warrior did not deny it. This girl...she was a pretty little thing. With luscious dark hair, full of colour, and skin unmarked by cruelty or time. "!" The one winged creäture hissed to himself, his long canines digging deep against his tongue. This girl still contained the life and colour he wholly envied. Why did this girl deserve to live a life of happiness, free of sorrow, when his had been taken away from him the moment he was born ? Why was this girl allowed to be so youthful and whole...when his body was fucking degrading against his will?

_This girl has everything...and I have nothing..._

"And why...pray tell should I let you go?" The pseudo-angel spoke with genuine hate for this painfully attractive female. " I need not read your mind to know that you desire to see me dead? For isn't that what all damsels desire? The death of a monster?" The pale haired tragedy snapped wildly, as the young girl's mouth opened and closed in half paralysed shock. "Hahaha! It's true isnt it?" The pale pseudo angel remarked quite cruelly, feeling more powerful in the face of the girl's growing anxiety. It was an arrogant feeling. A joyous feeling that offered the fallen warrior deep pleasure, as Genesis knew he was more in control of the girl's fear, than the girl was herself. Genesis allowed this thought to empower him. He indulged in it...

0o0

_'For I am mad. I am diseased and I am broken. _

_And I hate everything about myself...'_

_0o0_

Genesis' smirked warmly down at the girl beneath him. In a different time and universe, the once russet haired Shinra Commander might have dabbled in teasing the flesh of this naïve girl beneath him. But times had changed, and Genesis no longer knew the man who could proudly wear crimson, and speak the passions of love, heroism and life. No...Genesis knew that man had died, leaving nothing more than a wraith..

_0o0_

_'A loveless wraith, who lives only to torment and choke little girls..._

_Humph, a perfect monster indeed.'_

_0o0_

"So tell me, young maiden, where is this hero of yours who can fight on your behalf to slay me?"

Aeris opened her mouth and closed it rapidly. She felt unnervingly powerless against this strange tempest of rage, and those disarmingly blue eyes. Eyes that glowed nothing like _His_…Like her Zack's had.

"H-Hero? M-monster? W-what? N-no! I d-don't understand! Why are you saying such things to me?! Why would I want you dead?" _'I don't even know you!'_

"If there is no hero present to fight on your behalf. Tell me, where is your weapon to slay me then, Monster slayer?" The false-angel hissed in a tempestuously sinister tone.

"W-what? I think you are mistaken. I have no intention of harming you," Aeris answered carefully. "I-"

"Lies!" The demon snapped to her, as he bore his white canines down upon her with frightening speed. For one heart-stopping moment, Aeris thought the crazed creäture was going to bite a chunk out of her face!? But as soon as the demon leant forward, he pulled his head back, and a cocky grin quickly morphed upon his face. "Humph, as I expected. You underestimate my intelligence," the pale haired demon chastised quite blandly, whilst tilting his head to the side in mock curiosity. "Hmm, but why else would you seek me out, if not to cause me pain? You cannot lie to me girl for I know better. Everyone I have met on this Planet has tried to hurt me one way or the other. I have learnt that my soul was born to only experience suffering and lies, and I tire of such deceit."

Aeris wanted to get through to this man. But the hand around her throat...and her inner aggravation. _Why does he think I intend to hurt him?_ "No…No! You misunderstand. I'm…I'm not lying to you! I only found you here…in my patch of flowers… And you were-are bleeding… I don't have any intentions of hurting you Mister. I...I only wanted to awaken you…so I could relieve you of your suffering."

Blue eyes ignited with a self-proclaimed understanding. "Ahh, so you wish to relieve me of my suffering then?" Genesis voiced softly. "So it is true then. You wish to kill me."

"NO! No-no-no!" Aeris wept out in pure shock. She had never met a devil such as this man. It felt like such torture trying to get through the many veils of his darkness. "I only wanted to help you. You see. I-I heal birds and flowers," Aeris stammered through her many tears. "…And then when I saw you laying in my bed of lilies… I-I thought…I hoped…that maybe…I c-could heal you too. I had no intention of harming you Mister An-An-gel…?"

The burning blue in the demon's eyes faltered in momentary shock.

"Mister-?" The warrior repeated aloud, as his grip dramatically loosened around the girl's neck."Angel?" The pseudo-angel did not want to think of _him_ but it was already too late. A man he once idolised as a childhood friend was quickly forming into his thoughts. A strong and stocky figure with dark hair and white feathers... A man he once respected. A man he so desperately wanted to forget...

"No," the warrior muttered, as he pulled his hand away from the startled girl to raise a trembling hand to his head. "I'm no Angeal...no Angeal," Genesis rambled to himself, as he began to unconsciously pace.

Once free of the false-angel's wrath, the brunette took advantage of the moment to suck as much air into her lungs as she could, hacking, coughing and rubbing her sore throat all the while. "B-but..your wing …" she voiced weakly, as she turned towards the one winged form.

"No. You were mistaken." Genesis answered quietly, as his body came to a stop towards the shadows of the nearest church pillar. "I am no angel."

"But if you are not an angel, then what are you?" Aeris voiced weakly from within her seat of flowers.

0o0

**_What are you?_**

0o0

The warrior stumbled in surprise at the question. His gloved hand grasped the nearest pillar to lean on for support.

_"What am I?"_

Genesis barked a short, strangled laugh, as the epaulettes on his shoulders began to quiver and shake with mock hilarity. Mako blue instinctively shifted towards the effervescent colours of false light sifting through the glass painted windows on the other side of the room. There were so many innocent colours painted on the glass. Blue. White…Pink….Gold...Silver. But no red… Nothing as symbolically destructive as red. It seemed such an unnatural colour. An impossible colour to be found within the holy sanctions of this worn down church.

Genesis' weak and broken body shook with emotion.

"What I am…" Genesis voiced quietly, bitterly, in a tone that Aeris strained to hear. "Is fear made flesh."

Inhuman blue met sensitive green. His gaze was far too intense for the timid girl, and so Aeris turned her gaze from the black winged form.

"I-I d-don't understand," Aeris admitted slowly. Fearfully.

"Good," Genesis stated simply, shaking his head. "Good," the demon repeated in a much softer tone, as his body began to move away from the girl in the flowers." You don't need to understand." Genesis sighed quietly. '_For no-one needs to ever understand…'_.

Genesis turned and began to limp towards the exit of the church,

"But... doesn't it get lonely?" Aeris voiced weakly, as she stared down at her wounded flowers, anxiously twisting her fingers in her lap.

The warrior's footsteps stopped.

And Aeris continued.

" When you aren't understood..." Aeris added carefully, as she nervously wrung her hands together, not wanting to look at the man who could very well be glaring at her from behind "Doesn't it make you feel lonely? You see... I…get lonely here sometimes…and being different…. sometimes it feels like a burden…"

When Genesis made no answer to the brunette's words...

Aeris bravely turned her head back to the pillar he once stood by.

"..."

Aeris released a breath she did not realise she had even been holding, and shivered silently.

"He's gone...?" the introverted girl whispered to herself, as she turned her gaze from the entrance before looking at the remains of her lilies. There were so many broken heads and shattered stems. All the effort she had taken in creating and nurturing such life, destroyed by the blind carelessness of a nameless winged angel... 'Or demon…'

The brunette bit her lip anxiously. Aeris knew she had every right to be so angry with him.

But…

The brunette glanced down at the large wet bloodstains…

_0o0_

_And all Aeris could envision was a memory of a bloodied and broken woman. _

_Her body was lying on one side of a Midgar train platform. _

_She remained so still, so motionless…. _

_And yet the path of crimson blood was rapidly growing around her…_

_It was always forever growing…_

_0o0_

Tortured green eyes snapped open wide, and Aeris furiously blinked back the fresh tears, which were already seeping into her vision. It had been a very long time since she had thought of that tragic night. She had been so young and tiny then…

And naïve…

So painfully naïve…

The brunette instinctively reached up to her head, to trace the place where her Mother's heirloom sat proudly hidden, beneath her pink ribbon, before dropping her hand back to the side. Her brows creased together in thought. Now was not the time to procrastinate of the past. Not when there was cleaning to be done.

_'If I don't wash the blood away, it may permanently stain the wood,'_ the brunette thought with genuine worry, as she went to the utility room in search for a bucket, a hand-brush, soap and some water. Although the church was not Aeris' by name, she had always felt a connected to this lonely building since she was a little girl. Aeris knew it was a place for those who still believed in hope despite the pressing times of tragedy, and it was for this reason Aeris cherished it.

_'Ok. I have everything I need.'_

Collecting the items she needed for her task, Aeris returned to the bloodied floorboards, knelt down, and with brush in hand, shebegan to clean.

0o0

_~3 hrs later~_

_0o0_

The brunette's fingers ached. Her wrist ached. Her arm ached. But it was finally done.

Discarding the bucket of dirty water and rinsing her red, sore hands under a cold water tap, the green-eyed flower girl returned to her damaged flowerbed, and knelt down once more.

"There we go. No more scary stains," Aeris spoke to the damaged plumes of colour, absently petting one nearest to her person. Her gaze softened at the damage her plants had sustained, and instinctively, despite her pain, and all her tiredness, Aeris distinctively clasped her worn fingers in prayer, and prayed for Gaia's will to revive her bed of lilies once again.

A familiar green appeared.

And her lilies perked right back up from the appreciative shot of healing energy

However soon after the weak curative spell had been cast, Aeris began to grow light-headed and dizzy.

"I'm sorry, but that is the best I can do for now," Aeris wheezed to her little floral patch. She only allowed herself a moment to gain a small amount of energy, before she got to her feet and dusted her pink clad knees.

'Huh?'

Aeris paused. Something caught the corner of her eye. Peaking out beyond her bed of lilies

'Oh? What is this?'

The brunette bent down and plucked the item up from the ground. Dog eared and quite tatty, Aeris could tell the item had been quite loved by its owner. Her brows furrowed delicately, as she turned the item in her hands, and read the title emblazoned quite proudly across the front.

"….Loveless?"

The brunette blinked slowly, recognising the name of the text from many billboards which emblazoned the play production. To be honest, she had never taken much interest in the title.

_"After all...Why should I put value on a text which amplifies the emotions of human negativity? I have no intention in focusing my thoughts on the negative aspects of the human heart."_

Aeris frowned to herself.

And yet even thinking this...and believing this. Aeris nevertheless felt mildly curious about the book in her hands.

_Where had it come from?_

_Who had left it there?_

A flash of blue eyes and pale hair materialised into her thoughts.

'Was it...?'

Her gaze became thoughtful, as she turned her soft gaze towards the entrance of the church, then back down to the text in her hands.

_'What should I do with it?'_

Aeris did not have to wonder for long. As she was too engrossed in the Loveless book in her hands, she was unaware of the movement of blue moving towards her. It was only when she heard a slight cough behind her, that Aeris whirled around in surprise, heart racing, expecting to see the form of a certain, black winged, angry angel. But instead there was a slim man in a dark blue suit, dark eyes...and dark hair. The brunette's heart faltered. Her eyes widened.

_'Oh no!'_

"T-Tseng!?"

_"Good afternoon, Miss Gainsborough."_

_0o0_

_Hmm. Will leave it here. What do you guys think? :) x Leave a review and let me know._

_Oh and have a very nice day x_

_Aer_seph4eva xxx_

_(1) Reference of Promised Land lyrics. FF7 Advent Children._


End file.
